No, it’s not déjà vu. The Houston High School football team really is playing the same opponent back-to-back weeks.
The Tigers got a close look at their first-round district opponent on Friday night in the regular-season finale against Mountain View-Liberty. And it appears the Eagles are poised for another postseason run.
Behind junior quarterback Jaelon Acklin –– who returned a punt for a score, had a pair of rushing scores and threw three more –– the Eagles scored 42 first-half points and cruised to a 42-7 victory.
Based on the Missouri State High School Activity Association’s new playoff format that ranks teams by their record and strength of schedule, Liberty and Houston will meet again Friday in the opening round of Class 2 District 3. The Eagles finished third in the eight-team district and the Tigers were sixth.
Both teams petitioned MSHSAA to play a different first-round opponent. But it was denied. MSHSAA representative Jason West said the organization knew the scenario was possible when the new playoff format was implemented.
That leaves the Tigers (2-7, 1-6 South Central Association) hitting the road to face Liberty for the second time in seven days.
“Liberty is peaking at the right time,” HHS coach Billy O’Neil said, “and it seems like we have plateaued.”
Houston had no answer for Acklin, who raced to the end zone the first two times he touched the ball. The first was a 75-yard punt return. The second was a 54-yard run down the middle of the field. The third time, he hit James Denton in stride for a 60-yard touchdown pass.
Acklin also had touchdown passes of 26 and 20 yards and a two-yard run as he accounted for all six of Liberty’s scores.
The Tigers’ offense struggled just as mightily as the defense. Houston managed just 23 first-half yards and three total first downs. Half of the team’s 119 yards of total offense came on Weston Walker’s 59-yard touchdown pass to Nathaniel Alkire early in the fourth quarter.
Liberty (7-2, 5-2) stopped HHS for no gain or lost yardage on 13 of the Tigers’ 31 running plays.
“The holes sometimes are pretty tight. But we should be gaining three or four yards instead of bouncing it outside and losing yards,” O’Neil said. “Liberty has too much team speed to do that.”
The Houston offense lost its leading rusher and second-leading receiver when senior Drake Bell injured his knee after a first-quarter reception. Bell was taken off the field by an ambulance and although an x-ray showed no broken bones, O’Neil said Bell was awaiting a MRI and would not be available for districts.
Senior Tyler Smith, who replaced Bell in the backfield, led HHS with 31 yards on eight carries. Kaden Miller added 19 rushing yards.
Walker was 2-of-10 passing for 63 yards and a touchdown. He was also intercepted once.
After Liberty stopped the Tigers in three plays to begin the game, Acklin fielded a punt at the 25-yard line and zigzagged 75 yards to the end zone.
Following another HHS three-and-out, Acklin faked a handoff to his running back and sprinted 54 yards to the end zone to make it 14-0 just over four minutes into the game.
“In the open field, he is one of the toughest kids I’ve seen to try to bring down or even catch,” O’Neil said.
Acklin, who was 7-of-10 passing for 162 yards, hit Denton streaking down the field for a 60-yard score on Liberty’s second play from scrimmage.
The Eagles’ third drive –– covering 71 yards on nine plays –– ended with a 26-yard pass from Acklin to tight end Austin Smotherman.
O’Neil said Acklin made perfect throws on both touchdown passes.
“I couldn’t ask for better coverage on either play,” O’Neil said. “If anyone would want to watch film on that, I’d show them it was great coverage.”
Acklin connected with Denton for a 20-yard score in the second quarter and had a two-yard rushing touchdown with 4 minutes, 41 seconds left in the half to put Liberty ahead 42-0.
“We made way too many mistakes against a very good offense,” O’Neil said. “You can’t make mistakes against speed. If you take a wrong step, you’re already behind, and you can’t match their speed.”
With the turbo clock running, Walker gave Houston its lone points when he connected with Alkire, who snuck out of the backfield, for a 59-yard fourth-quarter score. Senior Anthony Goff converted the kick.
The touchdown reception was Alkire’s second of the season. Walker has four touchdown passes.
O’Neil said he sees positives from his team. But the mistakes, especially against good teams, are proving costly.
“We’re making progress,” he said, “but you can’t make mistakes and not get burned a little bit.”
| Liberty | 28 | 14 | 0 | 0 | – | 42 |
| Houston | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | – | 7 |
First Quarter
LIB –– JaeAcklin 75 punt return (Postlewait kick), 9:49.
LIB –– JaeAcklin 54 run (Postlewait kick), 7:57.
LIB –– Denton 60 pass from JaeAcklin (Postlewait kick), 6:01.
LIB –– Smotherman 26 pass from JaeAcklin (Postlewait kick), 0:26.
Second Quarter
LIB –– Denton 20 pass from Acklin (Postlewait kick), 8:43.
LIB –– JaeAcklin 2 run (Postlewait kick), 4:41.
Fourth Quarter
HOU –– Alkire 59 pass from WWalker (AGoff kick), 10:23.
| LIB | HOU | |
| First downs | 17 | 3 |
| Total yards | 482 | 119 |
| Rushes-yards | 43-320 | 31-56 |
| Passing | 162 | 63 |
| Punt returns | 75 | 0 |
| Kickoff returns | 0 | 144 |
| Comp-att-int | 7-12-0 | 2-10-1 |
| Sacked-yards lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts | 1-27.0 | 4-21.0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 0-0 |
| Penalties-yards | 5-65 | 3-15 |
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING –– Liberty, JaeAcklin 6-79, Porter 14-77, Denton 6-61, Rodriguez 6-19, Quinn 4-16, Bush 3-13, Smotherman 1-4, Daniels 1-(minus-3). Houston, TySmith 8-31, Miller 8-19, Bell 1-5, Alkire 10-1, WWalker 4-0.
PASSING –– Liberty, JaeAcklin 7-10-0 162, Rodriguez 0-2-0 0. Houston, WWalker 2-10-1 63.
RECEIVING –– Liberty, Denton 3-106, Smotherman 1-26, JanAcklin 1-17, Bush 1-9, Frech 1-4. Houston, Alkire 1-59, Bell 1-4.
Final standings
Mountain Grove 9-0 51.28
Strafford 9-0 46.96
Liberty 7-2 46.18
Willow Springs 4-5 38.14
Fair Grove 5-4 33.95
Houston 2-7 22.95
Cuba 1-8 20.6
Pleasant Hope 1-8 15.86
––––––
Thursday’s games
Pleasant Hope at Mountain Grove, 7 p.m.
Fair Grove at Willow Springs, 7 p.m.
Friday’s games
Houston at Liberty, 7 p.m.
Cuba at Strafford, 7 p.m.